'COLWALL Tunnel Tragedy', ran the headline in the Malvern News 100 years ago.
An inquest heard that the driver of a goods train saw a body in the tunnel and reported it at the Colwall signal box.
The stationmaster and other railway staff investigated, and found the body 626 yards into the tunnel.
The deceased was identified as Mary Ann Higgs of Swansea. She had been returning home with her husband and family from an excursion to Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The excursion train was non-stop between Stourbridge and Hereford and at Hereford the door of her compartment was discovered open. Her family had been asleep.
There was no hint of suicide and it was assumed she had accidentally fallen from the unlatched door. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.
"Since its construction half a century ago the railway tunnel under the Malvern Hills has been particularly free from accidents. The oldest inhabitant cannot remember a fatal one before Sunday morning," said the report.
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